《打草惊蛇》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

2.打草惊蛇

dǎ cǎo jīng shé

【出处】《三十六计》第十三计：疑为叩实，察而后动，复者，阴之媒也。^[1]宋代郑文宝《南唐近事》：“鲁乃判曰：‘汝虽打草，吾已蛇惊。’”

【成语故事】唐朝年间，有一个名叫王鲁的衙门官员，他常常不能约束自己，不能自觉遵守法律法规，随意收受别人的贿赂。有一天，有一百姓到衙门递了一张状纸，控告王鲁的部下违反法纪、接受贿赂等种种罪行。王鲁一看，状纸上所写的各种罪状简直就和自己平日所犯的一模一样。王鲁一边看着状纸，一边发抖：“这……这不就是在说我吗？难道这个百姓已经察觉到了什么吗？天哪！”王鲁越看越害怕，几乎忘了状纸要怎么批，居然在状纸上写下八个大字：“汝虽打草，吾已蛇惊。”意思是说：“你这样做，目的是为了打地上的草，但我就像是躲在草里面的蛇一样，我可是被你吓了一大跳！”

【寓意】该成语的字面意思是指打草时惊动了草里的蛇。原比喻通过故意对某个人或者某种小的行为进行惩罚而对其他有类似想法或者欲实施类似行为的人提出警告。后也用来比喻做法不谨慎，反使对方有所戒备。

打草惊蛇
To Beat the Grass for Alarming the Snake

2.To Beat the Grass for Alarming the Snake

【Idiomatic Story】In the Tang Dynasty，there was an official from a Yamen^[2]named WANG Lu.However，he often disobeyed the laws and regulations.For example，he often accepted bribes from others at will.All the ordinary people there had complained against him but dared not say anything.One day，a man lodged a written complaint to the Yamen，accusing WANG Lu's underlings of their misdeeds，such as disobeying the laws and regulations，accepting bribes from others and so on.Later，the man's written complaint was submitted to WANG Lu.While reading the pleading，WANG Lu was greatly shocked by the list of misdeeds which were exactly the same thing as he did in his daily life.“Good Heavens，isn't he charging me? Have the plaintiff noticed my illegal behaviors?” he thought.Then WANG Lu became more and more scared，and totally forgot what to write on with his trembling hands.Surprisingly，he couldn't help writing down this line，“Though you just beat the grass，the snake in the grass has been startled.” Actually，the socalled “snake” was WANG Lu himself，he was greatly alarmed by the written complaint.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means the snake in grass was startled when someone beats the grass.It is used to mean that the intentional punishment to someone for doing something wrong is to warn others who have the same ideas or plan to do the same thing.Now it also implies the reckless or rash behaviors by some people caused the alertness of their opponents.

【注释】

[1]叩实：落实。阴：暗藏不见的事物。媒：手段，方法。释义：有怀疑就要侦察落实，了解实情，待完全掌握了实情后再实施行动。反复侦察是发现敌人暗藏事实的手段。

[2]Yamen：a governmental institution for dealing with local civic affairs in ancient China.